A Complete Guide to Running an Effective Walkathon Fundraiser

Since launching our 100% free to use Liftathon, Shootathon, and Hitathon fundraisers, sports teams, clubs and organizations have been finding new and exciting ways to run an “a-thon” fundraiser to tie together fundraising and performance. New to the term “a-thon”? No problem, here’s the general premise of an A-thon fundraiser:

• Set a date for the “a-thon” event (usually a month or so in advance)
• Collect pledges leading up to the event that are based on performance of your team/group during the a-thon (could be based on pounds lifted, home runs hit, etc.)
• Run the event and track performance for each fundraiser participant
• Collect the donations based on the pledged amounts

Walkathons – the latest, most exciting way to run an A-thon

A Walkathon is the latest iteration of the “A-thon” fundraising genre, and we think it can be one of the most effective for teams, clubs, and organizations everywhere to raise the necessary funds they need to operate (especially if you can run one for 100% free).

In a Walkathon, your team, club, or group would set a course (usually a track or something similar) and date for the walking event, collect pledges based on distance (laps, miles, or kilometers could work) leading up to the event date, and then on the day of the event you’d walk (with a time limit) to see how much distance each individual can walk in that time frame. After the event, you’d collect donations based on the pledge amounts received for each individual.

With that said, we totally understand that running a Walkathon is easier said than done, and just one paragraph is a super-oversimplication. So, we’re breaking down how to run an effective Walkathon fundraiser step by step below:

Step 1: Walkathon Fundraiser Setup and planning

While maybe the most obvious step we’ll list here, it’s also the single most important  and most comprehensive step – there’s a lot that goes into properly planning a walkathon. Moreover, without proper planning, your Walkathon is going to get poor participation, leading to less fundraising dollars for your sports team, club or organization.

To start, you’ll need to choose a date for your walkathon – we’d suggest that this is somewhere in the ballpark of a few weeks to a month in advance to allow you enough time to market the event and collect pledges.

Along with choosing a date, another quintessential part of Walkathon setup is deciding on the location, pledges, and timing of the event. We’ll break those down below:

1. Location: are you planning to make your own walkathon course, use a community track, a paved path at a local park, or maybe something else? These are just some ideas, but make sure the location is good for walking and not too far away.

2. Pledges: This part is crucial, you’re essentially going to need to set the units for pledging for your event. Are you going to ask fundraiser supporters to pledge per lap (effective for tracks or circular loops), or maybe per half-mile or mile? Whichever you choose, this will be used to collect your walk-a-thon’s pledges. For example, if using laps, a fundraiser participant would collect pledges based on the number of laps they complete during the duration of the event. If a support pledges $5 a lap, and the participant completes 25 laps, that would lead to a $125 donation for your team.

3. Duration: You’ll need to set a time limit for your event that fundraiser supporters can use to inform their pledge amounts. For this, we’d suggest anywhere between 1-3 hours. The pledges would then be based on how many laps a participant can complete in that amount of time.

Another consideration when choosing a timeline for your event is the weather – if you live in a colder-weather area or are in the winter months, you may want to consider waiting to run your Walkathon until the weather is a bit nicer in the spring or summer. At the end of the day, it’s just harder to encourage individuals to participate in bad weather. By planning around good weather conditions, you’ll likely get better participation which will lead to a higher likelihood of your team raising your fundraising goal.

The last part of effective planning? Setting a kick-off meeting. Getting all participants on the same page is the absolute most effective way to get your Walkathon off the ground. Make sure the group of individuals planning the fundraiser is aware of what a walkathon is, what the pledges are, and how the money is to be collected. Most importantly, use this kick-off meeting to hand our pledge sheets to your fundraiser participants, this will help you stay organized with your walkathons pledges.

Step 2: Collecting pledges for you Walkathon

This is the part of a Walkathon, after the kick-off meeting but before the actual Walkathon, where your fundraiser participants will try to encourage potential supporters to pledge donations based on their laps/miles completed. To give enough time to collect sufficient pledges, we’d suggest that you give at least 3 weeks for this time window. That way, you’ll give ample time for your walkathon participants to reach out to family and friends for pledges.

Alternatively, if using Teamfi to completely digitize your Walkathon for free, Teamfi will completely automate the pledge collection process via text message outreach – this can really speed up the pledge collection process, leaving you only needing about a week or two to collect sufficient pledges from friends and family.

Step 3: The day of the event – running the Walkathon

You’ve made it this far, and this is the best part! The day of your Walkathon should be exciting and fun. On the day of, make sure each participant is being tracked so that laps/miles can be counted for accurate pledge totals. Typically, this

We’d also highly suggest that you provide some hydration and refreshments for your participants – walking for 1-3 hours continuously can be seriously challenging and draining!

Lastly, go out of your way to make your Walkathon fun! Whether that’s playing music throughout the course, wearing costumes, or something else, encourage your fundraiser participants to enjoy themselves throughout the event.

Step 4: After the event– collecting donations for your Walkathon

The very last step of a Walkathon, collecting donations, is without a doubt the most important! Without this, your team would have done all of the work to put together a Walkathon without raising the necessary funds to support your program!

To collect the pledged donations we’d suggest reaching out to each individual who has pledged via email or phone, letting them know what their donation amount resulted in and letting them know the preferred method of payment. For example, if an individual pledged to me $3 a lap and I completed 30 laps, I would let the individual who pledged to me that they owe a $90 donation for their pledge. In all honesty, collecting pledges can be the most tedious part of running a Walkathon fundraiser. That’s why we’ve built a completely digital and automated a-thon software that handles the outreach to the donors and collects the pledges for you, saving you a ton of time and effort.  

Conclusion

There you have it, a complete guide to running an effective Walkathon from planning to wrap up. If you’ve made it this far and you’re interested in learning more about how Teamfi can help you digitize and automate your Walkathon for completely free, feel free to book a demo with our founder and he’ll show you exactly how it can work for your sports team, club, or organization, all for 100% free.

Still have some questions? No problem, always feel free to reach out to us via email and we’ll respond as fast as humanly possible. Additionally, you can check out our frequently asked questions page, where we provide simple answers to the most common questions we get from fundraiser organizers.